daybreak2, Since you had good success the first year, something must have changed since you built your "perfect" soil. I'm thinking about several things: 1. Your irrigation water might contain chemicals that have built up in your soil; 2. Your compost might have the wrong pH or be missing important nutrients (what is "soil builder" btw?); 3. Disease organisms might have been introduced into your soil; 4. The amount of sun your boxes gets could have changed. It sounds as if your garden is getting progressively more heat as it moves from box #1 (soaked) to box #4 (too dry) or you're growing plants that use more water in some boxes than others. Here are some suggestions: 1. Have your soil and water tested. 2. Rotate your crops among the boxes. 3. Make your own compost. 4. Fix your irrigation so that it delivers different amounts of water depending upon where each box is located (full sun, part shade, windy or not) and the water demands of the various crops. 5. If those don't work, start over with your boxes in different locations and without the landscaping fabric.

Antiquesilver...I imagine that ISO is not changeable when in any semi automatic mode. The camera wants to do that for you so it will most likely be automatic. However you should be able to raise the EV just one notch up to +0.3, or get a stronger light bulb. Also try substituting the thin cloth with white tissue paper or tracing paper. The cloth might be cutting out too much light. I know what you mean about too strong a light blowing out the detail on the silver pieces. But keep experimenting to get the right combination of camera setting, light and diffusor. If you are interested in reading photography books, I can highly recommend this one "Light - Science & Magic. An Introduction to Photographic Lighting."" by Fil Hunter, Steven Biver, Paul Fuqua. There are detailed explanations of setting up tabletop lighting with a whole chapter dealing with how to photograph metal objects. You might want to have a look in your library or bookstores. The ISBN (I have the 3rd edition) is: ISBN-13:978-0-240-80819-2 , published by Focal Press. Tutorial number nine will be a few days late this week. Probably have it ready for the weekend since we had a lot to do this week, including rescuing our new cat from a neighbour's locked backyard LOL. (All turned out well there.) SharonCb

Here are a couple of my favorites too. I keep the brownie mix on hand for the kids, better than the boxed brownies anyday, and it's from the King Arthur website: Make-Your-Own Brownie Mix A 2 1/4 cups (16 ounces) sugar 1 1/4 cups (3 3/4 ounces) Dutch-process cocoa (we love our deep-dark Double- Dutch Cocoa) 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon espresso powder 1 1/2 cups (6 1/4 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour 2 cups (12 ounces) chocolate chips In a large bowl, thoroughly stir together everything but the chocolate chips. If you’re using a stand mixer, let it mix on low speed for 5 minutes; it’s important to make sure everything is well combined, especially if you’re making a double batch of the mix. Stir in the chocolate chips at the end. Note: If you’re making a double batch, stir 2 cups of chips into each separately (rather than stirring 4 cups of chips into the entire batch). Scoop mix into an airtight container, and store at room temperature for up to 6 months. Deep-Dark Fudgy Brownies Their name says it all��"these are dark, moist, and delicious. 1 batch Make-Your-Own Brownie Mix* 1 cup (2 sticks, 8 ounces) unsalted butter 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 4 large eggs *Use 6 cups mix (2 pounds, 6 1/2 ounces) if you’re scooping out of a multiple-mix batch. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9" x 13" pan. Place the mix in a large bowl. In a medium-sized microwave-safe bowl, or in a saucepan set over medium heat, melt the butter and continue to heat till it’s very hot and starting to bubble around the edges. Note: Heating the butter like this helps give the brownies an attractive, slightly satiny top crust. Add the hot butter to the mix, stirring till everything is thoroughly combined. Beat in the vanilla, then add the eggs one at a time, beating till each is totally mixed in. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Bake the brownies for 28 to 30 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, or with just a tiny amount of moist crumbs clinging to it. The edges of the brownies should be set, but the middle still soft. Remove the brownies from the oven, and cool them completely before cutting and serving. Yield: 2 dozen brownies. Variation: For ultra-thick brownies, spread the batter in a 9" x 9" x 2" pan*, and bake in a preheated 325°F oven for about 45 to 55 minutes, till a cake tester inserted in the very center reveals no liquid batter, only moist crumbs. Remove from the oven, and cool completely before cutting and serving. *Be sure to use a pan that’s at least 2" deep, to prevent overflow. I like this pancake mix, the graham crackers give it a nice flavor. Graham Pancake Mix 4 cups whole wheat flour 1 cup graham cracker crumbs 1 cup whole bran 4 tablespoons brown sugar 4 tablespoons baking powder 2 teaspoons salt Mix all ingredients together and keep in a tightly covered container. When you're ready to make the pancakes, use 1 ½ cups mix with the following: One egg, 2 tablespoons vegetable oil and 1 ½ cups of milk. Stir together until moistened and cook on a hot greased griddle (400 F) until done. Serve hot with maple syrup or crushed fruit. Finally, chocolate oatmeal. I like it, but I haven't had a chance to play with different flavors yet: Heart Smart Oatmeal Breakfast (this makes a LOT) 42 ounces of old fashioned oatmeal (not the 1 minute kind) 4 cups raisins/cherries/cranberries,dried fruit 1/2 container cocoa (the regular grocery store size) 16 ounces ground flaxseed 2 ounces ground cinnamon Mix it all up and store. It'll keep for a long time, but the flaxseed will get rancid eventually, so I just made half a batch. To make oatmeal, put 3 heaping tablespoons in a bowl, add 1/3 cup water (more if you like it a bit less "thick", experiment and add water to suit your tastes) and stir. Microwave for 2 and a half minutes, stir well and top with yogurt and fresh fruit, or milk and sugar, whatever you like on oatmeal. Annie

I'm a happy Zo owner and am on my second one - wore the first one out. I use it for making nearly all the dough I make, but never bake in it. There's also just two of us, but I bake ahead and fill my freezer with all kinds of things divided in single-serving sizes. In the summer I can bake a loaf of bread in my Sharp Microwave/Convection Oven in 20-minutes without ANY preheating (25 minutes for 2 loaves) or I'll bake in my Solar Oven. I like the results better than in the Zo. I usually make the largest amount of dough (2#) that a recipe will make and divide it into 2 loaves (we use one loaf of bread per week). Use one and freeze one. My "everyday" 100% whole wheat bread recipe makes 2.5 pounds and I can get several things out of this amount of dough. Some combination of the following, depending on what I need to fill the freezer with: 1- one-pound Pullman Loaf or regular loaf 6- jumbo pecan or cinnamon rolls 4-6 hot dog buns 8-inch square pan of dinner rolls 6 hamburger/sandwich buns So think past loaves.... I make sourdough all the time. I just use the dough cycle and remove the dough from the bread machine as soon as the kneading is finished. I put the dough into a dough rising bucket to finish the first rise. Because sourdough raises much slower than bakers' yeast dough, I always remove the dough from the bread machine and watch the rise myself. If you do decide on the smaller Zo (which I don't think is a bad decision), you can always do what I do when I have a "marathon" baking to do. I'll make consecutive batches of dough without letting them raise in the bread machine. As soon as one recipe is done kneading, I'll stick it in a dough rising bucket and have the ingredients ready-to-go and start the next recipe (don't clean/wash the bread machine out, other than what you can remove with a spatula). About the time the first recipe is doubled in bulk in the dough rising bucket, the second recipe is ready to come out of the bread machine and go into the dough rising bucket (although I have a number of dough rising buckets of different sizes to use for marathon baking). I've done as many as 5 consecutive recipes doing this. I may have to retard some of the dough in the refrigerator, but I've done large amounts of baking for receptions using this method. One word of caution, although the large Zo can bake a 1-pound loaf, I'd suggest you bake it outside the machine for that small amount of dough. I baked a 1-pound loaf in the Zo when I first got it and we had a good laugh at the results. The one pound amount loaf ends up being an "odd" size (short and wide - not good for sandwiches or toast) since the bread pan is designed to accomodate double that amount. I don't think you can go wrong with either size Zo. -Grainlady